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Saturday, July 31, 2010

Ken Davidoff on WFAN tonight with Tony Paige said he doesn't think Carl Crawford is on Yankees' radar but they are interested in Cliff Lee. The interview ran shortly before 11:30pm. Ken elaborates in his Newsday column tomorrow. The Carl Crawford subject came up in context of Paige asking Davidoff if he thought they might trade Granderson (which has been mentioned in speculation, not actually being considered). Davidoff said no, he didn't think so.

"Bud, I know you probably won't answer this but you must be happy the Yankees lost today, must be thrilled, because this helps your argument for parity. How about that?"

Bud answers:

"Well, you're right, Chris, I'm not going to answer that. But my guideline is how many teams are in the running at the end of the season." (Translation: You Yankee fans can dine on beans and franks, just hand over your money to me and shut the hell up).

As the oil 'spill' seems to be 'disappearing', US interests are racing to get some kind of climate/energy scheme through. BICEP is pressing US lawmakers to pass "an “energy efficiency resource standard” (EERS) that would

Although EERS is a dubious proposition for all BICEP’s members— including the Aspen Skiing Company, eBay, Levi Strauss, Nike and Target — Best Buy’s support makes one wonder what’s in the air at corporate headquarters....

Past the proliferation and increased use of all sorts of devices from cell phones to personal computers to electronic games, Americans are now turning to electronic book readers like the Kindle and iPad.

Add into the mix the push for electric vehicles, and the notion that there’ll be less need for electricity becomes even more absurd. The only way to use less electricity is to buy and use fewer and smaller gadgets, appliances and other consumer goods. It’s hard to see how these trends will bring any benefits to Best Buy’s bottom line.

Additionally, the question must be asked: Why should Americans want to use less electricity? What would be the economic impact of reduced electricity use?

As the National Academy of Sciences pointed out in its landmark report, “Electricity in Economic Growth (1986), “Electricity use and gross national product have been, and will probably continue to be, strongly correlated.” This truth of this relationship continues to exist — the economy is struggling and electricity use is down. More generally, there probably never has been a time in human history when social and economic advancement has occurred without increased use of energy.

In other words — and for the benefit of Best Buy’s management — if the goal is to have consumers that can continually afford to indulge in the latest electronic gadgetry, two things must happen — increased economic growth and available and affordable electricity.

Red Sox radio pre-game show adds calls from fans

Red Sox radio's pre-game show on WEEI is still anhour long with features like the Terry Francona show, but it has eliminated other interviews and added fan calls with studio host John Ryder. The Boston Globe article also suggests Red Sox radio booth members will be on hand to chat with fans.

A WEEI executive says: ""It’s really about trying to do something different and giving people a chance to participate in shows they otherwise might not be able to participate in, in addition to the fact that

Mets channel SNY promotes two to VP

“Our studio news and entertainment programming has continued to grow and set new standards under Brad’s leadership and creative vision. He was instrumental in overhauling our entertainment block with the creation of 'The Wheelhouse' and 'Loud Mouths'and has successfully managed and directedan outstanding group of men and women in our news room who continue to create and produce exceptional New York Mets, Jets, Big East and 'SportsNite' programming.”

In pursuing the ballot drive, Reed had sought to light a fire under Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, who has had a three-member committee studying the plight of the A's and their desired South Bay move for 16 months. The long review has frustrated San Jose officials and A's owner Lew Wolff.

But Reed, speaking at City Hall, said he would honor a request from Selig to shelve the ballot drive as the study moves along.

Reed said Selig's second-in-command, Bob DuPuy, promised in a telephone conversation this week that Major League Baseball would help pay the $1 million-plus cost of aspecial election in the spring if, by then, baseball deems San Jose to be the best place for the A's to play.

"I think that's a good sign," Reed said of the promise. "I think we did apply the appropriate amount of pressure, and we got some progress."

Reed said he had assumed that voter approval for a ballpark in San Jose was important to the committee studying the A's. But "getting it done before (the study is finished) is not as important as I thought it was," Reed said.

To put a ballpark measure on the November ballot, San Jose's City Council would have had to act by its next meeting on Tuesday. A council committee shelved the plan Wednesday.

The measure would have authorized the city to use redevelopment funds to acquire, clear and lease a stadium site for the A's, who would then build and maintain the ballpark.

The stadium would be built adjacent to Diridon Station, a couple of blocks south of the HP Pavilion. The station is served by Caltrain and Amtrak and by VTA light rail lines."...

"Managers of the area estimate each person leaves behind 8 pounds of trash as they cross this area, resulting in over 2 MILLION pounds of trash annually"...Media delirious with joy at the thought of garbage, vermin, disease, and suffering. ed.
photo of sign from People for Preserving our
Western Heritage, meaning freedom from torture,
decapitations, human smuggling, disease, vermin, garbage,
and terrorism. To the media this view is seen as
of course 'racist.' ed. Sorry, this can't last.

lives lost because of unnecessary reactions like biofuels affecting food supplies.

Stories appear about the corruption at the IPCC and others about the leaked emails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU). Most people, including the media, don’t seem to realizethe IPCC is the CRU."....

Slate contacted Weigel shortlyafter he left the Post to discuss what he could do for the online magazine (which, oddly enough,owned by the Washington Post Co.) Plotz said that the Post Co. has been informed of the hire, but pointed out that Slate is "editorially independent from the newspaper.""...

A Journolist non-member notes he was incorrectly accused of being on the list. That was a mistake. It's just that his firmly held world view sees itself as the home base of tolerance, compassion, and an open society. His language and venom prove the opposite.

via Poynter.org/Romenesko

Update: I heard a famous Journolist member (not the one alleged above) say recently, he didn't "really have a world view," meaning this is starting to qualify as a new psychiatric disorder. That of "congenital viewing of oneself as objective."

Global warmists lead with money but still lose argument

"Warmists may be winning the big grants but they're not winning the argument."

"One familiar technique they use is to attribute to global warming almost any unusual weather event anywhere in the world. Last week, for instance, it was reported that Russia has recently been experiencing its hottest temperatures and longest drought for 130 years.

The head of the Russian branchof WWF, the environmental pressure group, was inevitably quick to cite this as evidence of climate change, claiming that in future

Meanwhile, notably little attention has beenpaid to the disastrous chill which has been sweeping South America thanks to an inrush of air from the Antarctic, killing hundreds in the continent's coldest winter for years.

In America, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been trumpeting that, according to its much-quoted worldwide temperature data, the first six months of this year were the hottest ever recorded. But expert analysis on Watts Up With That, the US science blog, shows that

(continuing, Telegraph): "A second technique the warmists have used lately to keep their spirits up has been to repeat incessantly that the official inquiries into the "Climategate"scandal have cleared the top IPCC scientists involved of any wrongdoing, and that their science has been "vindicated".

But, as has been pointed out by critics like Steve McIntyre of Climate Audit, this is hardly surprising, since the inquiries were

none of them remotely connected to what the fusswas all about. Last week Andrew Montford, author of The Hockey Stick Illusion: Climategate and the Corruption of Science, revealed on his blog (Bishop Hill – bishophill.squarespace.com) that the choice of these papers was approved for the inquiry by Sir Brian Hoskins,

A third technique, most familiar of all, has been to fall back on the dog-eared claim that leading sceptics only question warmist orthodoxy because

they have been funded by "Big Oil" and the "fossil fuel industry".

Particularly bizarre was a story last week covering the front page and an inside page of one newspaper, headed "Oil giant gives £1 million to fund climate sceptics".

The essence of this tale was that Exxon Mobil, the oil giant that is the world's third biggest company, last year gave "almost £1 million" to four US think-tanks. These had gone on to dismiss the Climategate inquiries as "whitewashes".

It was hardly necessary to be given money by Exxon to see what was dubious about those inquiries. Not one of the knowledgeable sceptics who have torn them apart has received a cent from Big Oil. But what made this particularly laughable was that the penny-packets given to think-tanks that

Compare the funding received by a handful of think-tanks to the hundreds of billions of dollars lavished on those who speak for the other side by governments, foundations, multinational corporations, even Big Oil, and the warmists are winning hands down.

Warnings of catastrophe in the Himalayas endured in other media such as

the NY Times and Time Magazine:

Leading up to Copenhagen, The NY Times elevated the stature of the false Himalaya data by reporting the Himalayas are melting due to man made climate change and threatening lives in Nepal and Maldives:

In a public actof digital direct action, the ECX website was taken offline and replaced with a message in an effort to try to raise awareness about carbon trading as a dangerous false solution to the climate crisis, in support of the grassroots activists aiming to oppose the power structures and

"The Cap and Trade system (as implemented in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme) has a whole range of issues:

* It's main purpose is not to reduce emissions, but to help polluters meet "reduction" targets in the cheapest way possible, in a business-as-usual scenario.
* Leaves room for unverifiable manipulation.
* Generates outrageous profits for big industry polluters, investors in fraudulent offset projects, opportunist traders and new 'marketplaces' such as the European Climate Exchange.
* It distracts attention from the wider, systemic changes and collective political action that needs to be taken to tackle climate change and it's fundamental root causes.""

“I think they backed off because it was me,” he said matter-of-factly.

A year later, his performance speaks louder for Conte than any testimonial. Byrd, who played in his first All-Star Game last week, keeps getting better.

Power? Last year with the Texas Rangers he doubled his previous high in homers with 20, and this year his OPS is a career-best .864.

Stamina? The 32-year-old is batting .320, nearly 40 points higher than his career average, and hasn’t dipped below .297 since April 22.

Byrd, a reserve for most of his career, has played in 91 of 93 games this season.

Conte’s array of pills, powders and potions promises increased energy and faster recovery after workouts. He has his skeptics, but to Byrd it’s the word. Upon signing a free-agent contract with the Cubs last winter, Byrd contacted Conte to adjust the regimen to take into account the increased number of day games he’d be playing in Chicago....

Byrd also frequently submits to a comprehensive metabolic blood-testing panel that Conte uses to adjust the regimen. Cubs manager Lou Piniella doesn’t care about the particulars, but he does appreciate Byrd’s contribution....

“Victor’s supplements have become so much a part of my routine, I can’t imagine not using them,” he said. “I think other guys are missing out.”...

I make no inference from this article, I've always heard Marlon Byrd is a terrific person and team mate. It's just interesting the writer either didn't ask for the dates on which Byrdhas been tested by MLB in the past year, knew the dates and chose not to put them in the article, or knew that Byrd hadn't been tested at all in the past year and didn't put that in the article. Saying that Byrd "broke no rules" and had good deportment doesn't necessarily cover the topic at hand. ed. photo above AP

each rig affects some 1,500 jobs, so the loss of four of them already means 6,000 Louisiana jobs vaporized.

And as Randolph also mentioned, no business can survive a six-month suspension. The rigs are only a small part of the equation. The marine service companies, the caterers, the industrial pipe manufacturers, the marine fabricators and all the countless other businesses which service an exploration rig will have nothing to do for the duration of the moratorium regardless of whether the rig owners manage to stick it out.

7/21/10, The Daily Caller: "In a post to the list-serv Journolist, an online meeting place for liberal journalists, Spitz wrote that she would “Laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out” as Limbaugh writhed in torment.

“I never knew I had this much hate in me,” she wrote. “But he deserves it.”

Spitz’s hatred for Limbaugh seems intemperate, even imbalanced. On Journolist, where conservatives are regarded not as opponents but as enemies, it barely raised an eyebrow.

In the summer of 2009, agitated citizens from across the country flocked to town hall meetings to berate lawmakers who had declared support for President Obama’s health care bill. For most people, the protests seemed like an exercise in participatory democracy, rowdy as some of them became.

On Journolist, the question was whether the protestors were garden-variety fascists

Richard Yeselson, a researcher for an organized labor group who also writes for liberal magazines, agreed. “They want a deficit driven militarist/heterosexist/herrenvolk state,” Yeselson wrote. “This is core of the Bush/Cheney base transmorgrified into an even more explicitly racialized/anti-cosmopolitan constituency. Why? Um,

But it’s all the same old nuts in the same old bins with some new labels: the gun nuts, the anti tax nuts, the religious nuts, the homophobes, the anti-feminists, the anti-abortion lunatics, the racist/confederate crackpots, the anti-immigration whackos (who feel Bush betrayed them) the pathological government haters (which subsumes some of the othercategories, like the gun nuts and the anti-tax nuts).”...

When the writer Victor Davis Hansonwrote an article about immigration for National Review, for example, blogger Ed Kilgore didn’t even bother to grapple with Hanson’s arguments. Instead Kilgore dismissed Hanson’s piece out of hand as “the kind of Old White Guy cultural reaction that is at the heart of the Tea Party Movement. It’s very close in spirit to the classic 1970s racist tome, The Camp of the Saints, where White Guys struggle to make up their minds whether to go out and murder brown people or just give up.”

The very existence of Fox News,meanwhile, sends Journolisters into paroxysms of rage. When Howell Raines charged that the network had a conservative bias, the members of Journolist discussed whether the federal government should shut the channel down.

“I am genuinely scared” of Fox, wrote Guardian columnist Daniel Davies, because it “shows you that a genuinely shameless and unethical media organisation *cannot* be controlled by any form of peer pressure or self-regulation, and nor can it be successfully cold-shouldered or ostracised. In order to have even a semblance of control, you need a tough legal framework.” Davies, a Brit, frequently argued the United States needed stricter libel laws.

“I agree,” said Michael Scherer ofTime Magazine. Roger “Ailes understands that his job is to build a tribal identity, not a news organization. You can’t hurt Fox by saying it gets it wrong, if Ailes just uses the criticism to deepen the tribal identity.”

Jonathan Zasloff, a law professor at UCLA, suggested that the federal government simply yank Fox off the air. “I hate to open this can of worms,” he wrote, “but is there any reason why the FCC couldn’t simply pull their broadcasting permit once it expires?”"...

American Thinker: "For most Americans the war erupting along our southern border has elicited little more than passing comments. We feel insulated and secure because of the vast distance separating our lives from the widespread civil unrest that is escalating at an alarming rate. Nearly 25,000 Mexicans and Americans have been killed since the Mexican government's declared war on the drug cartels in 2006.

the humanitarian crisis along our border actually does pose a very serious threat to our national security. It is inexplicable that same news conglomerates that seem obsessed and strangely eager to report every act of violence in the Middle East have remained nearly mute on the

"Growing violence along our southern border being ignored by the media,"

by Peter Raymond

7/22/10: (I purposely did not post this until well after the time frame referenced by the commenter. This war is nevertheless something that should be on the front pages of every newspaper. If it were, the problem would be solved). ed

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Baseball blog & comments on XM MLB 89 and others that "define the daily discourse" for money in order to please Bud Selig or vanity publisher bosses. I agree with Doug Pappas' statement: "Any writer meeting the Commissioner’s standards of ‘good journalism' should be fired.” I'm also a 'Saves Scholar.' Not affiliated with XM.